Poll: Stimulus didn't help

Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has helped create jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

Sixty-two percent of those polled said the stimulus hasn’t contributed to job creation, while 33 percent said the package has.

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Only a slight majority, 51 percent, of Democrats think the stimulus helped create jobs; 42 percent said it has not. Seventy-nine percent of self-identified Republicans said the stimulus didn’t aid job growth, while 18 percent thought it did.

The survey also showed that voters are mixed on whether the Troubled Asset Relief Program was effective in staving off a deeper financial crisis.

Forty-nine percent said TARP did not prevent a more severe crisis, compared to 42 percent who said it did.

Still, despite the pessimistic outlook on two of the Obama’s administration’s signature economic initiatives, most Americans think the country’s economy will be either better or the same a year from now.

Forty-two percent expect the economy to get better, while 36 percent think it will stay the same. Nineteen percent believe the economy will get worse.

The poll was based on interviews with 1,546 adults nationwide conducted April 21-26 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.